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THE 


Modern Railway Car 

AS ILLUSTRATED BY THE 

EXHIBITION CAR 

/ 

BUILT FOR 

The Railway Age, 



PULLMAN’S PALACE CAR COMPANY., 


FROM 


SPECIMENS OF THE BEST MATERIALS AND APPLIANCES, 


FURNISHED BY 

LEADING MANUFACTURERS AND DEALERS. 






Copyright, 1883, 

By THE RAILWAY AGE PUBLISHING COMPANY 



| KKIGHT R LEONARD ■ I 





¥f[e Railway Age. 


RETROSPECTIVE AND PROSPECTIVE. 

E IGHT years ago the railway interest of the United States was at a 
comparatively low ebb. The annual record of construction showed 
a smaller mileage than for ten years previous, notwithstanding the growth 
of the country, and an almost incredible proportion of our railways were 
passing through the stages of bankruptcy. But there were signs of a 
revival of this great interest, and it was felt that the time had come for 
the publication of a journal of broad scope and progressive tendencies, 
which should aim to fitly represent the railway interest, to gather and 
disseminate information pertaining to it, and to encourage the growth 
and development of our railways and of the diversified industries inti¬ 
mately connected with them. Accordingly in June, 1876, The Railway 
Age was established. In the first number these words were used: 

“ Its purpose is to fully and independently discuss, not only the purely 
technical and mechanical features of railroading, but to devote still 
larger attention to facts and ideas of interest, not only to those depart¬ 
ments, but more especially to many thousands of non-scientific officers 
and employes, who seek a wider and less abstruse range of information, 
and whose best energies are devoted to the service of the railway compa¬ 
nies of this country,—to combine the popular with the technical, enter¬ 
tainment with instruction, so that every railway man may find in its 
pages something of interest and value. The intention also is to make 
The Railway Age a paper which will be read with interest and profit 
by other than railway men — to make it comprehensive without diffusive¬ 
ness, practical without dryness, and solid without heaviness,— of positive 
value to those who build and operate, and to those whose money is 
invested in railways.” 

The Railway Age of to-day is a satisfactory proof of the correct¬ 
ness of the principles upon which it was founded. Its success has been 



6 


THE MODERN RAILWAY CAR. 


far greater, than its originators ever dared to hope for. It has received 
the cordial and generous encouragement of railway men of all classes, 
and of manufacturers, dealers in railway belongings, inventors, investors 
and the public press, to all of whom it has aimed and will ever aim to 
give a full return. Its name and its circulation have become not only 
national but cosmopolitan, and its weekly issues visit many lands. 

The railway interest is growing rapidly, and The Railway Age will 
endeavor to keep abreast of its progress. Grateful for the past and 
ambitious for the future, being absolutely free from connection with or 
bias for any particular company or interest, and determined to serve not 
only the railways, but also those with whom the railways do business, 
justly and impartially, The Railway Age hopes for a continuance of 
the favor and esteem of both. 



Model Car which this little 
book is intended to describe and illustrate, 
is the result of a suggestion made two or three 
years ago by a prominent railway official, and fol¬ 
lowed by the cordial approval and co-operation of 
many of the leading manufacturers of and dealers in rail¬ 
way appliances and supplies throughout the country. The 
idea was to produce a car which should be a model of the 
most improved style of modern passenger car construction 
and furnishing, and it is believed that the result more than 
justifies the most sanguine expectations. Strength in the 
framework; safety and ease of operation in the running 
parts; comfort and luxury in the internal arrangements; 
beauty and good taste in the adornments ; the best results 
of inventive genius, proved by practical use, in the various 
appliances which the growth of the science of railway 
operation has developed—these are here exhibited more 
perfectly, it is thought, than in any railway car ever before 
constructed. 
















ISTORICAL. 


T HE railway car is decidedly a modern invention. The 
world had carried on its locomotion by various primi¬ 
tive means—on foot, on horseback, by boats, by dog sledges, 
by ox carts made of pieces of wood fastened together by 
thongs, by clumsy wagons and clumsier coaches; and at the 
end of several thousand years, the stage-coach, drawn by four 
horses, was believed to furnish the acme of luxury and 
pleasure for the traveler. 

The railway car dates back scarcely more than fifty years. 
It is an infant in age compared with previous kinds of con¬ 
veyances, and yet the railway car of to-day is as different 
from and as much superior to that of 1830, as the gorgeous 
four-horse mail coach was superior to the Pembina ox cart, 
which only a very few years ago, before the railway had 
reached the Red River region, occasionally came creaking 
down to St. Paul. 

The first railway carriage was really nothing more than 
a stage-coach body placed on small wheels running upon a 
track. We have all seen illustrations of the first train run in 
the U nited States, consisting of several coach bodies fastened 
together, with six or eight people crowded on the inside, and 
others on the top and on the front and rear seats. This was 
considered luxurious traveling in those days. To merely 
have their stage-coach run upon a level road and drawn by 
steam instead of floundering through mud and climbing 



First Passenger Car Drawn by Steam in the World. Engraved from an Original Drawing by George Stephenson. 
































































































































































































































































































































































THE MODERN RAILWAY CAR. 


I I 

mountains, drawn by jaded horses, was of itself a sufficient 
luxury; and our simple predecessors did not think of having 
their coaches heated, or lighted, or protected from the weather, 
much less of having room to walk around and even to lie 
down in; while the idea of sleeping and eating upon the cars, 
running, too, at the rate of forty or fifty miles an hour, did 
not even occur for many years to the pioneers of our railway 
system. 

But the railway came to revolutionize existing ideas, and 
in no other way has the progress of thought and invention 
been more rapidly illustrated than in the improvements which 
have been developed in the past few years in connection with 
railway equipment. As we have said, the first railway car¬ 
riages were little more than stage coach bodies on car wheels. 
This general form is still adhered to throughout the old 
world, the modern European railway car being simply three 
or four stage coaches joined together, each compartment rep¬ 
resenting almost precisely the stage coach method of seating 
passengers. Of course great improvement has been made in 
the furnishing of these carriages, and the modern luxuries of 
lighting, heating, and fast running have been added; but 
after all, the European railway carriage is an inferior piece of 
workmanship in respect to size, convenience and general im¬ 
pressiveness, compared with the latest productions of the 
American car builder’s skill. The first railway cars in this 
country were built on the stage coach plan, but American 
inventors soon conceived the idea of more generous accom¬ 
modations, and a car with a door at each end and seats on 
each side of the long aisle running down the center was intro¬ 
duced. It was a very primitive vehicle, however. As proof 
of this let the reader turn his critical attention to the illustra¬ 
tion on page fourteen, showing a passenger coach on the 
Michigan Central Railroad less than forty years ago. We have 
copied the illustration from an original schedule of rates of 























































































































































































































































THE MODERN RAILWAY CAR. 


13 


freight and fare on the Michigan Central Railroad, issued by 
the Board of State Commissioners, who then ran the road, 
dated Detroit, September 2, 1844, an d preserved by the late 
Col. Samuel Stone, who was an officer of the Board. 

By comparing this curious vehicle with the modern day 
coach or sleeping car it will be seen that wonderful improve¬ 
ments have been developed in the last few years. Instead of 
four little wheels under each truck, we now have four, six or 
eight great forty-two inch steel-tired paper-cored wheels, upon 
which the traveler rides at the highest rate of speed without 
fear of accident. Instead of the low flat roof, on which the 
sun must have been wont to beat down with painful effect 
upon the plug hats and coal-scuttle bonnets of our respected 
ancestors, as they appear at the curious windows of the 
antique car in the cut, we have now the high deck, furnishing 
an abundance of light and ventilation. The early Michigan 
Central travelers apparently were not sensitive to cold, as 
there is no evidence of any heating apparatus in the car, and 
if we could enter this vehicle we should, no doubt, find that 
little attention was paid to upholstering, decoration or carpet¬ 
ing. This was the “palace car” of only a few years ago. 
The sleeping car, drawing-room car, dining car, — and above 
all, the private car combining all the attractive features of 
these vehicles — are the product of the genius and taste of 
a very recent period. 

Looking upon this primitive car, and considering the 
awful discomforts which attended a journey by rail in such a 
vehicle, the thoughtful observer, as he reflects upon the mill¬ 
ions of people who journey by rail every year now-a-days, will 
be impressed with the conviction that no class of men has con¬ 
tributed more to the comfort and enjoyment of the civilized 
world of the present day than the builders of the modern 
railway car, aided by the manufacturers of the various appli¬ 
ances and articles which belong thereto. 
















































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































THE MODERN RAIL WA Y CAR . 


15 


By way of contrasting still further the present with the 
early days of railway history — and they are within the recol¬ 
lection of many who read these pages — let us see what sort 
of vehicle the first passenger car was. 

By rare good fortune we have been able to secure a copy 
of a drawing, by the great George Stephenson, of what was 
probably the first railway passenger car built; and from this 
we have had a reduced engraving made, which is presented 
on page ten. The difference between this primitive con¬ 
veyance and the latest production of car building skill, as 
represented in The Railway Age Car , is certainly aston¬ 
ishing. For the use of the drawing from which this cut is 
copied, we are indebted to Mr. J. B. Winslow, of Boston, one 
of the earliest railway officers in the country, who, although 
now comfortably retired from the engrossing cares of railway 
management, still takes great pleasure in noting the progress 
of the interest which has grown to such vast proportions 
within his active lifetime. Mr. Winslow writes : “ I have 
forwarded to you the drawing of a passenger car, with the 
autograph of George Stephenson upon it. He sent to the 
Lowell Railroad before it opened (which was in June, 1835) 
a number of drawings showing the various parts of a railway, 
including these among others. This drawing evidently was 
copied from one that was used to build the cars from some 
years before its date, 1832. I have no doubt the original was 
used for building the first passenger car ever constructed.” 

Imagine travel by rail now-a-days accomplished in a little 
open wagon like that shown in the illustration. The passen¬ 
gers sat face to face in three little boxes, reached by a single 
long step. Their knees must have nearly touched, and the 
backs of the seats were hardly higher than the ordinary chair 
back. There was no cover nor protection from the weather. 
The baggage was pushed in through the little doors under 
the seats, and it is evident that no Saratoga trunks could have 


i6 


THE MODERN RAIL IVA Y CAR. 



been carried by rail in those days. The 
little car ran on four iron spoked wheels, 
and where the track was rough must 
have given the passengers a lively 
shaking, providing that it moved 
at anything like modern railway 
speed. Looking at this frail 
open wagon, and then at the 
latest specimen of the mod¬ 
ern palace car, the observer 
is forced to admit that 
the world does move. 

Coming nearer 
home, but only a few 
years later than 
Stephenson’s first 
effort, recall to 


mind the trains 
that used to trun¬ 
dle over the old 
Camden & Amboy 
road, which now forms 
part of the Pennsylvania 
Railroad company’s solid 
and smooth line between 
Philadelphia and New York, 
on which travelers every day 
make the ninety miles in a 
couple of hours. The illustration 
on this page shows one of these 
odd little trains—engine with won¬ 
derful “cow-catcher,” smoke-stack and 
drivers, baggage car with the little car- 
riage-top hood under which the brakeman 


THE MODERN RAIL WA Y CAR . 


17 


sat perched to view the landscape o’er — no running of trains 
by telegraph in those times,— and modest little four-wheeled 
deckless cars, such as immigrants would scorn to ride in now¬ 
adays. Imagine the great Pennsylvania company boasting 
of such vehicles to-day! Imagine a journey across the conti¬ 
nent in such a “ first-class coach,” instead of the modern Pull¬ 
man palace car! 

Another interesting specimen of early railway car con¬ 
struction is illustrated by the accompanying cut of the first 
passenger car, having a Monitor or raised roof, built in this 
country. The illustration is engraved from a photograph of 
a model now in the office of the Eastern Railroad Association, 
at New York. For the use of this model for this purpose, 
and for the following interesting information with reference 
to the car referred to, we are indebted to Mr. Andrew 
McCallum, Secretary of the Association above named: 

“ This car, called the ‘ Victory,’ was built for and run on 
the Philadelphia & Germantown Railroad in 1836. As I am 
informed, its first trip was made July 4, of that year. It was 
constructed on the principle then advocated by Mr. Richard 
Imlay for supporting the body of a car, and for which he 
obtained a patent the following year (1837). It was an eight- 
wheel car, and consisted of a coach body dropped between 
the trucks, with a compartment at each end over the trucks. 
One of these compartments represents a water-closet and 
toilet, while at the other end of the car we find what was 
evidently intended for a bar. The center of the roof is 
raised, and runs from end to end of the entire car. The 
raised part is divided down the center so as to provide a back¬ 
rest for two rows of passengers sitting back to back and 
facing outwardly. The seats in the main body of the car 
were placed around the sides (omnibus style), and the door 
was in the side. 



First Monitor or Raised Roof. 























































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































THE MODERN RAILWAY CAR. 


19 


“ At the time the model was purchased from the adminis¬ 
trator of Mr. Imlay’s estate (1869) the following named per¬ 
sons were interviewed concerning its authenticity: Mr. Joseph 
F. Talson, of this city, who was present and saw the 'Victory’s’ 
trial trip around a curve (it being constructed without the 
usual king-bolt, there was some question as to how it would 
work), Mr. Laban B. Proctor, then (1869) working for C. 
Allison, car builder, Philadelphia, Pa. (Mr. Proctor assisted 
in building the ‘Victory’ in 1836, and Mr. Allison was also 
knowing to its existence at that time); Mr. George Campbell, 
of Philadelphia (better known to railroad men there as ‘ Old 
Whitey’), who was employed on the Germantown road July 
4, 1836, and remembered its being put on at that time. 

“ The foregoing is all the information I possess regarding 
the old car ‘ Victory.’ I never knew its dimensions.” 

For the purpose of showing to what a degree of perfec¬ 
tion the art of car building has reached, a number of the 
manufacturers of and dealers in articles used in car construc¬ 
tion have co-operated with The Railway Age in securing the 
construction of a private car which should be in every respect 
a model of its kind. That great institution, Pullman’s Palace 
Car Company, which has now for many years held acknowl¬ 
edged eminence in the business, both of operating sleeping 
cars and of constructing cars of all kinds, and to the taste 
and liberality of whose head and assistants the whole trav¬ 
eling world is under vast obligation, readily co-operated in 
the enterprise of the model car and undertook its construc¬ 
tion. How magnificently they have succeeded, The Railway 
Age Car , which this little volume is intended to describe, 
very satisfactorily tells. 












Descriptive. 


T HE frontispiece, showing an exterior view of this car, with which this 
volume is introduced to the reader, is necessarily not as perfect as 
could have been desired, because of the impossibility of fitly showing so 
large a subject on so small a page. But it nevertheless conveys some idea 
of the proportions, the finish, the decoration and the general effect of the 
whole, "although but a part is here represented in detail. Could the 
color, the ornamentation, the more minute features of the entire treat¬ 
ment have been presented, the reader would doubtless be better pleased, 
and the work of the brain which conceived the design, and of the hands 
which wrought the result, in this magnificent vehicle,— The Railway Age 
Car ,—would have been more creditably illustrated. However, it is some¬ 
times possible to make amends for an insufficient reward of genius 
bestowed in one way, by doing it more ample justice in another,—and so 
we propose showing the reader leisurely through this car and briefly de¬ 
scribing its several apartments and furnishings as we proceed. 

Before entering, however, let us glance at the “ running gear,” which 
in a railway car is one of the most important elements to be con¬ 
sidered,—one which has very much to do with the comfort and safety 
of those who travel. Twelve paper wheels, forty-two inches in circum¬ 
ference and supplied with the very best steel tires, support the car, the 
massive and yet symmetrical trucks under which they are placed being 
of the regular Pullman standard pattern for six wheels. The springs, 
too, are models of excellence, are made of finest steel and are highly 
polished. The air brake apparatus and the usual rods and bars of steel 
which give strength to the superstructure, complete this very important 
department of the car, the effect of the whole being comfortably assur¬ 
ing even to the most timid traveler contemplating a journey. 

We step upon a roomy platform, through an ornamental gate made of 
wrought steel with brass ornamentation, the whole from original designs 
which at once attract admiration, and enter the observation room. 

This room, which, as its name implies, is intended for occupancy when 
it is desired to view the road bed, track, bridges, etc., is 8 X 9 feet in size, 



22 


THE MODERN RAILWAY CAR. 



oak, the style being an adaptation of the old English 
and Dutch combined, very similar to that employed 
a hundred years or more ago in the Colonial man¬ 
sions of Virginia, New York and New England. The 
end windows are very large, being of French plate 
27 inches wide and 49 inches long, reaching almost 
to the floor. The door has two large lights of glass, 
the upper of which is handsomely embossed with 
the name of “ The Railway Age.” At the opposite end 
of the room is a beveled mirror, 22X32 inches, 
flanked on either side by three smaller ones, which 
in turn are flanked by bronze tablets, 111^X28^ 
inches, containing the names of the various firms 
represented in the construction and furnishing of 
* • the car, beautifully engraved. Under this mirror 
^ are two other bronze panels or tablets, one having 
> engraved on its surface “ The Railway Age Exhibition 
§ Car” and the other, u Pullman s Palace Car Company, 
^ Builders.” A sofa, upholstered in fine leather and 
: so constructed as to form two sleeping berths at 

% night, occupies a place under this mirror, and two 
a patent reclining chairs, also upholstered in leather, 
f- 1 are permanently attached to the floor immediately 
o in front of the end windows, a number of small 
§ camp chairs being distributed about the room. A 
Ph silver-plated two-burner lamp is suspended from 
o the ceiling, and a richly mounted instrument for 
£ recording the speed of the car, about as large as 
an ordinary clock, occupies a place between the 
windows, on one side of the room. A carpet of rich 
material covers the floor. 

From the observation room we pass into a hall 
and turn first into the Private Room, which is 7 X 8 
feet, and finished in maple and amaranth. An ele¬ 
gant full-sized folding bed, also made of these choice 
woods, occupies one side of this room, and opposite 
this a large mirror is set in a door which opens into 
the Ladies’ Toilet Room, with which the Private 
Room is connected. A couple of silver-plated 
side lamps furnish light at night, and two windows 
render like service during the day. 





































































In the Observation Room. 

































24 


THE MODERN RAIL WA Y CAR. 



The Toilet Room referred to is 5X7 
feet and finished in like material and 
style, and is as complete as skill could 
make it. It contains three large ward¬ 
robes for ladies’ wearing apparel, extend¬ 
ing entirely across one side, the front of 
the center one being a mirror, 22X48 
inches; a complete washstand, equipped 
with finest Tennessee variegated mar¬ 
ble, a double-acting pump, a large mir¬ 
ror, a silver-plated side lamp, two win¬ 
dows and about every other desirable 
convenience. A superb Axminster car¬ 
pet covers the floors of both these rooms. 

Passing again into the hall, which is 
also finished in maple and amaranth, we 
next enter, through a richly draped door, 
the Parlor, which is probably the most 
noticeable feature of the car. This is 
sixteen feet in length, extending across 
the car, and is finished in mahogany, with 
panels of rare woods from almost every 
country producing them, worked into 
novel designs representing the modern 
A Cozy Corner. ideas of this class of interior ornamenta¬ 

tion. At one end of the Parlor is a beveled mirror, 22X31 inches, 
surrounded by twelve smaller ones, also beveled, the whole framed 
in mahogany, with moulded cornice, carved in the most elaborate 
manner. At each side are ornamental panels of various fine woods, 
in marquetry. Under this mirror is a large sofa, upholstered in rich¬ 
est velure, which at night is transformed into a sleeping section, the 
back being raised and supported upon two brackets which in day time 
are not seen, a heavy tapestry curtain surrounding it when used as a 
sleeping compartment. Above the whole, snugly ensconced in the 
transom, is a beautiful clock. A mahogany extension table, used both 
for dining and reading purposes, occupies the center of the room, and 
about it are carelessly placed two richly upholstered easy chairs and 
a number of smaller ones. At each side of the Parlor are two large 
windows, 32X43 inches, with smaller ones on either side, and a beveled 
mirror, 21X40 inches, between. Each of these larger windows is capped 
by an elaborate entablature with panels of rare woods and rich carving. 



































































































































































26 


7HE MODERN RAIL WA Y CAR. 


The pedestals on which these mirrors rest are surrounded by little silver- 
plated railings, which serve both as a protection and as a receptacle for 
flowers or other ornaments. The large windows are richly draped from 
silver-plated rods, the smaller ones having curtains suspended from 
rollers as in sleeping cars, and being surmounted by a little railing or 
balcony of turned spindles, affording another receptacle for flowers when 
it may be desired to decorate the car. Against the back of the seat of 
one of the sections, and just under the beautiful drapery which separates 
the Parlor from the Sections, is a very ornamental as well as useful ma¬ 
hogany writing desk, through the top of which project three brass tubes, 
extending a number of inches high and supporting finely finished sec¬ 
tional representations in brass of the principal working parts of the West- 
inghouse Air Brake, referred to at length in another jfert of this volume. 

After the Parlor come the Sections, two in number, which are entered 
through a most tastefully designed arch of richest drapery, and which are 
upholstered in velure. The backs of the seats are ten inches higher than 
in sleeping cars, and the rich fringe attached to the upholstering extends 
to the floor. The fronts of the upper berths have numerous small panels 
and a number of appropriate carved figures of various rare woods, worked 
in so as to produce a most pleasing effect, and are exquisitely designed. 
The bulkhead partition, which separates the Sections from the working 
department, shows in its design some very novel and pleasant features, 
the principal one being the employment of an imposing arch, sprung 
from the backs of two section seats and passing over the door. In this 
arch are introduced rich moulding and very fine carving and blocking, 
in small panels. The door of this bulkhead contains a richly embossed 
light of glass, 17X44 inches. Through this door we pass to what 
may be appropriately termed the working department, the first object 
which attracts attention being a large silver-plated water cooler occupy¬ 
ing a niche in the left side of the pasage and standing on a highly polished 
slab of Tennessee marble. Opposite this is a large linen locker, next the 
Heater, which is highly ornamented in nickel, forming an attractive con¬ 
trast to the Russia iron; opposite this, the Gentlemen’s Toilet Room, 
supplied with a beautiful Tennessee marble wash basin, a double-acting 
pump, a silver-plated side lamp and other conveniences, and next a 
locker for the storage of supplies. This brings us to the partition 
enclosing the butler’s pantry and the Kitchen, in the first of which is 
a beveled French plate mirror, 20X58 inches —the largest in the car — 
the frame of which is moulded and carved in a most tasteful manner, 
and over which is a richly carved entablature, the whole conforming 
to the other furnishings of this part of the car. 












































































































































28 


THE MODERN RAIL WA Y CAR. 


Following the passage-way, around this partition, the butler’s pantry 
is next entered. This important department contains a remarkably com¬ 
plete refrigerator, made of fine woods, with double plate glass doors, 
through which its tempting contents are visible; numerous little 
lockers, drawers, shelves and hooks, for the storage of dishes and the 
smaller supplies required on long journeys, a marble sink in which to 
wash glassware, and a silver-plated side lamp. 

Last, but by no means least in importance, is the Kitchen, which is 
entered through a door adjoining the rear door of the car, and which is 
believed to be the most compact, and at the same time complete in all its 
appointments, ever placed in a railway car. One side of the room is oc¬ 
cupied by a cooking range and broiler, finished in nickel and black, the 
ornamentation being from original designs. These contain compart¬ 
ments for cooking and baking all articles required for the table, as well 
as for keeping them hot and in perfect condition for use. The floor is 
covered with copper sheeting. About the room are suspended the various 
articles required by the autocrat of the kitchen, every available inch of 
space both here and in the butler’s pantry being put to some practical 
use. A sliding window in the partition which separates the kitchen from 
the butler’s pantry, is used by the cook and the waiters through which to 
pass the viands and dishes. To the ladies, at least, this department will 
doubtless possess greater interest than any other, as it is certainly a 
model in its way. 

The ceiling, which is one of the most noticeable features of the car, 
must not be overlooked. In its designing great taste and much origi¬ 
nality have been displayed. The material of which it is made is princi¬ 
pally maple, with here and there a figure in some other variety of fine 
wood, and the decoration is in gold and pale colors, the general effect 
being exceedingly pleasing. 

The finish of that part of the car between the sections and the rear 
end consists of selected black walnut, with French walnut veneers. 

The visitor has now been shown through every nook and corner of 
this magnificent specimen of the art of modern car building, and will not, 
we feel sure, fail to give full credit, in proper proportions, to Pullman’s 
Palace Car Company, to the toilers whose hands wrought the work, and 
to the manufacturers who supplied the almost innumerable articles re¬ 
quired in its construction and furnishing, for the grand result accom¬ 
plished in the production of The Railway Age Car. 

In the succeeding pages will be found more extended reference to the 
various articles which have here necessarily had only brief mention. 


fun Equipment. 


THE WHEELS. 

T ENS of thousands of railway travelers are every day whirled over the 
country at a high rate of speed, upon discs of paper made out of rye 
straw. The idea of using paper for car wheels, which dates back only a 
few years, always strikes the uninformed as strange and almost paradoxi¬ 
cal. But a little reflection will show that a wheel composed of many 
sheets of straw board glued and pressed together under tremendous 
hydraulic power, must form a substance impossible to break like metal, 
or to split like wood, while at the same time possessing a slightly 
elastic property which naturally tends to deaden the blow when rapidly 
revolving upon rails. The wonderful invention of the Allen Paper Car 
Wheel consists in the use of this material for the core of the wheel, the 
paper being surrounded by heavy steel tires of the most expensive and 
perfect manufacture, while the axle plays in an iron hub securely fastened 
in the center. This gives a wheel consisting of a combination of paper, 
steel and iron so thoroughly fastened together as to be incapable of sepa¬ 
ration in any conceivable accident, and combining the unbreakable 
quality of the paper fiber with the best characteristics of the metals 
named. The result seems to be safety and durability in the very highest 
degree. The paper wheel has, during the ten years that it has been in 
use, developed extraordinary mileage, in many cases maintaining from 
100,000 to 200,000 miles without turning the tire, and from 400,000 to 
800,000 without renewing the tire. It has also effected a great saving in 
axles by reducing the jar and thus preventing crystallization and disin¬ 
tegration of the metal. This result, of course, produces another highly 
important result, the diminution of wear and tear of track, roadway, and 
rolling stock, so that while the first requisite — the safety of travelers—is 
almost absolutely secured so far as the wheels are concerned, by the use 
of this invention, the economy of maintenance is very materially pro¬ 
moted. 



30 


THE MODERN RAIL WA Y CAR. 


The success of this device is shown by the fact that the company 
manufacturing the wheel has grown in a few years to be a great corpora¬ 
tion, with extensive works at Pullman, Ill., Morris, Ill., and Hudson, N. Y., 
and that recent enlargements have given it the vast productive capacity 
of 25,000 wheels a year. One of the advantages claimed for the forty- 
two inch paper-wheel is, that on account of its large size, as well as the 
characteristics resulting from the use of paper, four wheel trucks under 
passenger cars, in place of six wheel trucks, are practicable, because of 


the great diminution of the weight 
without affecting the safety or 
smoothness of running. 



The paper-wheel is certainly 
one of the handsomest made, in 
appearance, especially the large 
size just referred to, and adds 
greatly to the general effect pro¬ 
duced by that most important 
feature of any car, the “ running 


gear.” The peculiar construction of the wheel is illustrated by the little 
cut herewith given. 


THE TIRES. 


The tires with which the twelve paper wheels under this car are 
equipped were furnished by the Midvale Steel Company, of Philadelphia, 
and Fried. Krupp, of Essen, Germany,— each of these great concerns 
supplying six. It is believed that a comparison of the results of pro¬ 
longed use of these tires will prove to be very interesting and instructive 
in establishing the relative merits of the home and foreign article, as here 
exhibited by these representative manufacturers of the two countries. 
The employment of steel by American railways for this purpose is of 
comparatively recent origin, and has grown in the estimation of all 
railway officials and metallurgists until now almost all first-class rolling 
stock, from the locomotive to the rear car of the train, is equipped with 
wheels which are supplied with tires made of the very best steel. There 
are so many elements of safety in steel over iron, when used for this pur¬ 
pose, to say nothing of the much greater wear to be derived from it, that, 
as a question of economy, it is coming to be regarded as far preferable in 
very nearly if not quite all respects which have a bearing upon the safety 
of travel and the economy of railway operation. 

The works of the Midvale Steel Company, located at Nicetown, near 
Philadelphia, are the most extensive and most complete in this country, 




THE MODERN RAIL IVA Y CAR. 


31 


and have long since acquired a reputation for their product of which the 
practical test given it by long use is thoroughly confirmatory. Everv tire 
and every axle turned out by this establishment is submitted to the 
most thorough test, both while in the raw material and after it has been 
finished, none being allowed to go into use in which there is discovered 
the smallest possible flaw or imperfection; and the result is that one of 
them is very seldom broken. 

For ten years past, the management of the Midvale Steel Company 
has held that, in the manufacture of steel, it is of the first and highest 
importance to be able to reproduce with accuracy any grade of steel which 
has been found best suited to a given purpose. With this in view, it has 
spared no pains to maintain a high degree of thoroughness and excel¬ 
lence in the following points: 

First: An accurate knowledge of the composition of all raw material 
used, by constant and systematic chemical examinations. 

Second: Such careful melting of the material as to insure the sound¬ 
est possible ingots, consistent with a proper composition. 

Third: The accurate determination of the chemical and physical 
characteristics of products, and the classification of the same thereby. 

Fourth: An intelligent and careful working of the steel at the ham¬ 
mer and rolls, with a view of turning out the metal, in the finished 
product, in the best possible condition. 

Fifth: Such constant testing of the finished products as to furnish 
knowledge of the physical properties of the same. 

The above principles of manufacture having been applied to the 
product of the Midvale Steel Company, it claims superior excellence in 
the following respects: 

FOR LOCOMOTIVE AND CAR WHEEL TIRES. 

First: Great uniformity in composition, their hardness being care¬ 
fully regulated according to the size of the tires, and the use to which 
they are to be put. 

Second: Soundness of the ingots from which they are made; which 
insures clean treads and good wearing qualities. 

Third: Careful and accurate rolling; by which the tires leave the 
mill in the best condition for strength, and so round and true to size 
that, in some cases, they can be put into service without turning. 

Fourth: High quality of the metal in the finished tire; as indicated 
by test bar cut from the center of a section, in the direction of its cir¬ 
cumference, which shows a tensile strength of 103,000 lbs. to the square 
inch; 15^- per cent elongation, and 24.14 per cent contraction. 


32 


THE MODERN RAIL WA Y CAR. 


Fifth i An exceptionally good record in the matter of wear, and small 
number of breakages. 

FOR LOCOMOTIVE AND CAR AXLES. 

It is claimed that the metal used in their manufacture is selected with 
great care, and after thorough testing. These axles are made of two 
distinct grades of metal, a softer or harder, according to the preference 
of customers. The high quality of the softer grade was shown by the 
master car-builder’s axle seen in this company’s exhibit at the National 
Railway Exposition, which sustained, without breaking, a drop-test of 
five blows of a 1700-lb. drop falling 25 feet, and twenty-five blows falling 
30 feet, the axle being supported between bearings three feet apart, and 
turned over after each blow. The harder grade of steel is represented 
by the master car-builders’ and Pennsylvania railroad passenger car 
axles, also exhibited at the Railway Exposition, from which test bars 
were cut from each wheel seat, half way between center and outside, 
showing a tensile strength of from 75,000 to 85,000 lbs. per square inch; 
an elongation, after fracture, of from 22 to 26 per cent, and a contraction, 
at point of fracture, of from 39 to 48 per cent. 

Of the Krupp works little need be said. They are the most extensive 
in the world, and have a reputation which extends very nearly over the 
world. A large percentage of their product comes to this country, and 
will doubtless continue to do so, at least until the facilities here for pro¬ 
ducing steel tires and axles have been greatly enlarged and made 
sufficiently extensive to supply the increasing demand. Long and wide¬ 
spread use on prominent railways, under first-class rolling stock, has 
given Krupp steel a record which is as free from flaw or defect of any kind 
as is the metal itself. Probably no manufacturing establishment of its 
class in existence is so widely known, or has distributed -its product over 
such vast expanse of territory and acquired a reputation so world-wide. 

The American representatives of the Krupp works are Messrs. Thomas 
Prosser & Son, of 15 Gold street, New York, whose reputation for busi¬ 
ness integrity is unquestioned and of long standing. 

Just in proportion to the increased use of steel axles and tires will the 
safety of railway travel be augmented, and no influence can so far aid in 
bringing about the greatly-to-be-desired transformation as the excellence 
of the material and work furnished our railways by the two great con¬ 
cerns named. These must be the educators that are to work this trans¬ 
formation, and that they are accomplishing it in a most creditable man¬ 
ner there is no doubt. 


THE MODERN RAILWAY CAR. 


33 


THE SPRINGS. 

The important part in the service of a car which is performed by the 
springs cannot be overestimated. It is true they do not attract the attention 
which is bestowed by the curious upon many articles of far less conse¬ 
quence, but no other exerts so great an influence upon the comfort of 
those who travel by rail. An imperfect equipment of springs results in a 
jerky, or trembling, or unsteady motion which ought to be a sufficient 
infliction to cause its immediate retirement from service, and the substi¬ 
tution of a first-class article. An evenly tempered set of springs, made of 
the very best steel (and no other should be used), adapted by a careful 
calculation of the weight and character of the load to be carried by the 
particular car under which it is intended to be placed, each member of 
the set being of precisely the same weight, quality and capacity, is cer¬ 
tain to attract an earnest commendation from every traveler who rides 
above them, and who knows anything of the important part they are 
intended to perform in rendering his journey safe and comfortable. 

If the reader could but examine a car or locomotive spring of thirty 
or forty years ago and compare it with those of the present day. he 
would be astonished at the wonderful progress shown. In design, in 
quality of metal, in finish, in everything, the fruits of inventive genius 
and mechanical skill, guided by practical experience and close observa¬ 
tion, are manifest. This great advancement is largely the result, too, of 
the encouragement to be found in a growing disposition on the part of 
American railway managers, master car builders and purchasing agents 
to use only the best material attainable. These officials are wisely giv¬ 
ing more and more heed, as the years come and go, to the principle, 
long since become an adage, that “ the best is the cheapest, and the 
result is not only a better spring than was dreamed of twenty years ago, 
but the best rolling stock, in every respect, in the world. 

In railway operation, experience, which is in no other department of 
commercial or business life a more effective school, is unquestionably 
teaching this fact, and the sooner it is universally admitted the better 
will it be for those whose money is invested in railway property. There 
is nothing to gain and everything to lose by using anything but the best, 
and this applies to every appliance used in railway construction or opera¬ 
tion, from the humble bolt in the track to the finished car or locomotive. 

In spring making, as in every other business, the conduct of which 
requires mechanical skill and a knowledge of the material used, constant 
experimenting and the most careful study of the needs which are intended 
to be met are necessary. No man in America more thoroughly appre- 


/ 


34 THE MODERN RAIL WA Y CAR . 

ciates this fact than does Mr. Aaron French, the head of the great Pitts¬ 
burgh concern whose springs are under the Railway Age car. Before 
railway building in the West had created a demand for the skill and 
genius which he possessed, he was engaged in the manufacture of stage¬ 
coach springs in the little town of Racine, Wisconsin, and in this humble 
occupation was steadily winning a reputation for superior work and honest 
material, which, on the approach of the railways was wisely turned to 
profitable account. He saw in the needs of the railways a golden oppor¬ 
tunity and he promptly accepted the challenge. The skill that had rend¬ 
ered his work famous with stage-coach owners and travelers was needed 
in the new and more extended field. That he has most creditably em¬ 
ployed it, both railway managers and the traveling public will cheerfully 
testify. His product is known wherever railway trains are seen, and its 
superiority is recognized as universally as is that of the air brake, the 
Pullman sleeper or the steel rail. 

The works of A. French & Co. and the French Spiral Spring Com¬ 
pany, which organizations are largely identical, are among the most 
prominent industries of the great manufacturing city of Pittsburgh. 
Their construction has been after the most carefully devised plans, and 
economy of time and labor, rapidity of execution and a systematic ar¬ 
rangement of the large number of machines employed, make it an easy 
matter to dispatch work with great precision and promptness. 

The elliptic springs with which this car is equipped were made espe¬ 
cially for it by A. French & Co., and the spiral or bearing springs, by the 
French Spiral Spring Company, and are from the finest steel produced in 
this country. The traveler who has the good fortune to ride in a car 
resting upon such springs, may at least depend on absolute comfort and 
safety in so far as this feature of his surroundings is concerned. 

In few respects has there been greater improvement in the past twenty 
or thirty years in matters connected with railway appliances than in the 
character of the springs used both in passenger and freight equipment 
It has been constant, unfaltering and marked. That the springs under 
this car combine all the improvements as to design, material and manu¬ 
facture made by Mr. French, in all these years is a fact which is expected 
to crown them with a record that will long outlive the car itself. 

THE JOURNAL BEARINGS. 

These are not an unimportant feature of the running gear of a car by 
any means. There have been many different combinations of metals 
suggested for Ahe purpose and not a few have been patented, but none 


THE MODERN RAILWAY CAR. 


35 


seem to have acquired higher rank than that patented by D. A. Hopkins 
and manufactured by Geo. R. Meneely & Co., of West Troy, N. Y., from 
whose well-known establishment came the bearings which are doing ser¬ 
vice under th £ Railway Age car. These are made of brass with soft metal 
so imbedded in them that they fit themselves to the journal, wearing 
smoothly and evenly, always protecting rather than injuring it, and 
avoiding that most serious trouble, heating. In addition to its West 
Troy works, this concern, which consists of Geo. R. Meneely and T. W. 
Getman, operates an important branch at Atlanta, Georgia. 

THE WESTINGHOUSE AUTOMATIC BRAKE. 

Perhaps no more wonderful improvement has been made in railway 
appliances within the past few years, than that indicated by the substitu¬ 
tion for the old fashioned hand brake, requiring a man on each car and 
then often working very imperfectly, of the wonderful automatic brake 
apparatus which places in the hands of the engineer the ability to apply 
the full power of steam and to immediately stop the train. Many in¬ 
ventors have long struggled with the difficult problem of using the 
same power which impels the train, to stop it. A number have succeeded, 
and there are three or four kinds of power brakes now in operation. 
The name of George Westinghouse, Jr., is known world wide in connec¬ 
tion with his long continued and now splendidly successful effort to 
construct an automatic air brake. The first patent for a “ compressed 
air ” brake was issued to Mr. Westinghouse, April 13, 1869, and the 
present automatic brake, which seems to have reached the limit of per¬ 
fection, is the result of continued study and experiments indicated by 
nearly 100 patents. The Westinghouse brakes first in use were non¬ 
automatic, that is, would not operate of their own accord should the 
train part or a pipe break. The automatic brake which is now fast being 
substituted for its predecessor is a beautiful example of instantaneous 
and accurate self action. This brake can be applied and released 
instantly, and will stop the train under full headway in about its own 
length. It can be applied from any part of the train, by any employe as 
well as by the engineer, and is applied instantly with its full force to 
every vehicle if the train breaks in two, or if any accident occurs to the 
apparatus, such as a ruptured pipe or hose, causing sufficient damage to 
render a non-automatic brake powerless. The principle upon which this 
wonderful device operates is not only exhibited in the full sized brake 
attached to the car now being described, but is admirably shown to the 
passenger by the ingenious model in the car itself. A mahogany writing 


THE MODERN RAIL WA Y CAR. 


36 

desk encloses the working parts, which are easily reached for examina¬ 
tion, and extending through and above this desk a few inches are several 
brass tubes,'showing sections of the apparatus and their working as the 
brake is applied and released. This very interesting model was pre¬ 
pared expressly for this car, nothing of the kind having before been 
made. An examination of its smooth and noiseless working as the train 
starts and stops gives the traveler a new admiration of the genius 
which has placed the train, in case of danger or necessity, so completely 
in the hands of the man at the front— the engineer. 

It may be well to state that the Westinghouse air brake is composed 
of eight essential parts, as follows: 

1 st. The steam engine and pump, which produce the compressed air. 

2d. The main reservoir , in which the compressed air is stored. 

3d. The engineer s brake valve , which regulates the flow of air from the 
main reservoir into the brake pipe for releasing the brakes, and from the 
brake pipe to the atmosphere for applying the brakes. 

4th. The main brake pipe, which leads from the main reservoir to the 
engineer’s brake valve, and thence along the train, supplying the appa¬ 
ratus on each vehicle with air. 

5th. The auxiliary reservoir, which takes a supply of air from the main 
reservoir, through the brake pipe, and stores it for use on its own 
vehicle. 

6th. The brake cylinder, which has its piston rod attached to the brake 
levers in such a manner that when the piston is forced out by air pressure 
the brakes are applied. 

7th. The triple valve, which connects the brake pipe to the auxiliary 
reservoir, and connects the latter to the brake cylinder, and is operated 
by a sudden variation of pressure in the brake pipe, so as (1) to admit 
air from the auxiliary reservoir to the brake cylinder, which applies the 
brakes, at the same time cutting off the communication from the brake 
pipe to the auxiliary reservoir; or(2) to restore the supply from the brake 
pipe to the auxiliary reservoir, at the same time letting the air in the 
brake cylinder escape, which releases the brakes. 

8th. The couplings, which are attached to flexible hose and connect the 
brake pipe from one vehicle to another. 

The Westinghouse Air Brake Company is officered as follows: Presi¬ 
dent, George Westinghouse, Jr.-, secretary, W. W. Card; assistant secre¬ 
tary, S. H. Sprague; treasurer and purchaser, John Cal well; general 
agent, H. H. Westinghouse; superintendent, T. W. Welsh. The brake 
is also represented in Great Britain by a strong company and has already 
been introduced on many of the great railway lines in Europe, in spite 


THE MODERN RAIL WA Y CAR. 


37 


of the fact that there are several European devices claiming to accom¬ 
plish the same end,— a high tribute to the excellence of the Westing- 
house apparatus. 


BRAKE SHOES. 

The metal shoes which intervene between the brakes and the wheels, 
seem of trifling importance to the ordinary observer, and yet they are 
absolutely indispensable to safety. The Westinghouse brake itself might 
be almost inoperative if the brake shoes did not hold. As a tremendous 
amount of work is required of them, it is of great importance to secure 
metal that will stand long service, and at the same time not grind the 
wheel unduly. The Congdon brake shoe is the result of a happy idea 
of combining the advantages of wrought iron and cast iron respectively 
in the same shoe, by making it of pieces of both kinds, which has been 
found to result in very great working ability,—better than either wrought 
or cast iron separately. The long life of this shoe is its best recommen¬ 
dation, and has established for it a record which only merit can establish. 

THE PLATFORM RAILINGS AND GATES. 

The broad platforms of this car, from which it will often be found 
pleasant to take a view of the passing scenery, are protected by strong 
and yet elegant steel railings, which, it is safe to say, have never been 
equaled on a railway car. The entire railings, including three gates at 
each end, are heavily plated with nickel, and will stand wear and expos¬ 
ure for years without serious injury. The ornamentation, it will be seen, 
consists of a combination of scrolls which are worked into the wrought 
iron, and qre from original designs prepared expressly for this purpose. 
It will be admitted that they reflect great credit upon the taste of the 
manufacturer, Mr. E. T. Barnum, of Detroit, Mich. Mr. Barnum manu¬ 
factures all kinds of wire railings for banks, offices, theaters, house piazzas 
and stairways, balconies for public buildings, window guards, from the 
smallest used for private residences, to the heaviest wrought iron guards 
for prisons and asylums, wrought iron stair and area railings, fire places 
and stove grates, wire flower pot stands, wrought iron bedsteads with 
woven wire mattresses, iron cresting or roof railing, wrought iron fences 
with elaborate ornamentation, cast iron fences, hitching posts, etc. A 
visit to Mr. Barnum’s extensive establishment, or an examination of his 
elaborate catalogue, gives new ideas of the innumerable uses to which 
wire and light iron can be applied. 


38 


THE MODERN RAIL JVA Y CAR. 


PLATFORM LIGHTING. 

One of the “new things under the sun,” is the lamp which occupies a 
place in the center of the hood at each end of the car, and at night lights 
the platforms and steps. That it is a protection of much importance a 
trip which includes a dark night or two will very forcibly illustrate. The 
danger which attaches to the act of passing from one car to another, or 
to getting on and off a car in the night time is largely obviated by this 
simple invention. It is supplied with a reflector and is so constructed as 
to perfectly light the platform and steps the darkest night. The inventor 
and manufacturer is Mr. E. G. Windsor, of Providence, Rhode Island, 
to whose close observation and well directed efforts the traveling public 
will soon acknowledge a debt of obligation. 

COUPLER AND BUFFER. 

The coupler and buffer used on this car were supplied by the extensive 
establishment of McConway, Torley & Co., of Pittsburgh, and are known 
as the “ Janney-Miller Combination.” The especial advantages of this 
combination consist in the fact that it can be used on roads which have 
adopted either the Miller or Janney, equally well, and is suited to 
crooked as well as straight track. Its elements of safety are most highly 
commended in railway circles. At the recent National Exposition of 
Railway Appliances, this coupler was awarded the premium — the only 
one given any coupler—and received much merited praise. The high 
reputation of all work done for railways by McConway, Torley & Co. is 
as extended as are their vast business relations. 

THE ARTIFICIAL LIGHTING OF CARS. 

In few particulars has there been so great advancement in providing 
needed comforts and conveniencies for those who travel, as in the matter 
of lighting cars. 

We all remember (and it is not a particularly pleasant remembrance 
either) when it was evidently regarded necessary to provide only suffi¬ 
cient light to enable passengers coming into cars or leaving them at 
night, to grope their way to and from their seats. So dark were cars 
kept that the robbery of passengers by thieves seated with or near them 
was of frequent occurrence, and reading during the evening hours was a 
pleasure not to be thought of. They were gloomy cages in which men 
and women endured voluntary imprisonment for a brief period because 
necessity compelled them to travel, and they preferred even this means 


THE MODERN RAILWAY CAR. 


39 




to the greatly less comfortable one provided by the crowded, stuffy, 
rocking old stage coach. In those days night or even evening travel was 
not engaged in for pleasure, the comforts of the sleeping car being then 
almost as far away in the future as were those which are found in a cheer¬ 
ful light. 

The candle (tallow, doubtless) was the first 
means provided for lighting cars, and for years 
reigned supreme there as it did at the fire¬ 
sides of our ancestors. Mr. J. McGregor Ad¬ 
ams, president of the Adams & Westlake Man¬ 
ufacturing Company, who manifests a deep 
interest in the early history of those railway 
appliances which pertain to the interior fur¬ 
nishing or ornamenting of cars, has kindly 
permitted the use of several old relics in his 
possession, from which the illustrations here¬ 
with are engraved. They show, in a most 
forcible way, from what 
an humble beginning 
the beautiful and effec¬ 
tive car lamps now used 
have sprung, and how 

rapid the progress has been. These, or almost ex¬ 
actly similar lamps, were used on the older railways 
a number of years, and doubtless impressed the 
traveler with their then unequaled merits as fully 
as does the best Hicks & Smith, Adams & West- 
lake, Post & Co. or Williams & Page production 
that in these modern days (or nights rather) con¬ 
tributes to the comfort of our exacting traveler in 
a modern palace on wheels. It is fortunate that 
our appreciation is lavished upon what we have, 
rather than upon what inventive genius is ever 
promising us. 

The firm of Williams, Page & Co., of Boston, 
which was organized as dealers in general railway 
supplies nearly thirty years ago, claims' to have invented and manufac¬ 
tured the first car lamps for burning kerosene or mineral oils, and the 
first hanging lamps for Monitor cars. There was such a strong prejudice 
on the part both of the public and the railway companies against the 
use of kerosene, however, that this firm for a time abandoned the oil 


Car Light Previous to Introduction 
of Oil. 


Oil Side Lamp — Central of 
Georgia R. R. Prior 
to 1850. 











40 


THE MODERN RAIL W.A Y CAR. 


lamp, and devoted its attention to perfecting a candle lamp to burn a 
large paraffine candle having a one inch flat wick, and which is said 
to have given a very clear and satisfactory light. The Downer Kerosene 
Oil Company, of Boston, a little later conceived the idea that if paraffine 
gave so good a light in the form of a candle, it or some similar sub¬ 
stance in liquid form might be made to still more satisfactorily answer 
the purpose. Hence the origin of mineral sperm, or 300° fire test oil, 
now so largely used for lighting railway cars and steamships. There 
being at the time no suitable burner for this oil, Williams, Page & Co. 
commenced experimenting and finally produced the first two-tubed 
or dual burner, which is still very generally used. They were likewise 
the first to manufacture and introduce the two-light lamp for cars, and 
lamps for burning 300° fire test oil on ocean steamers, having fitted up 
the Cunard Line with them many years ago, and subsequently vari¬ 
ous other lines. The beautiful two-burner ceiling lamp in the obser¬ 
vation room of this car was furnished by this company. 

The New York house of Hicks & Smith is entitled to grateful remem¬ 
brance from the public as one of the first, if not the first, to introduce 
lamps in railway cars, of sufficient illuminating power to enable a trav¬ 
eler to read with ease and comfort. The large four-burner lamp in the 
parlor, and the two-burner and other lamps in other parts of the car, 
which this house supplies, are in wonderful contrast with the dismal 
tallow candle which long furnished the only illumination in railway 
cars, even of the most costly kind. 

Messrs. Hicks & Smith are exclusively engaged in the manufacture 
of railway and steamer lamps, and their trade is co-extensive with 
the railways of the country. Their persistent experiments in the 
matter of car lighting, extending over a long period and under all the 
various circumstances of climate, peculiarities of car construction, cur¬ 
rents and counter-currents of air, and other conditions which influence 
the behavior of a lamp, have been of great service to the railways and to 
the traveling public, for to these experiments is largely due the progress 
to which we have referred, in the very important matter of car lighting. 

The beautiful lamps between the sections and in the private 
room of this car, are furnished by The Adams & Westlake Manufac¬ 
turing Company. This company is a Chicago institution, and very 
widely known in railway circles. Its immense works, at Chicago, annu¬ 
ally turn out a great number of passenger, parlor, and postal car lamps, 
in brass, bronze, fire gilt, silver and nickel-plate, locomotive headlights, 
lanterns of all kinds, switch, signal and station lamps, as well as lenses 


THE MODERN RAIL WA Y CAR. 


41 


for semaphores, headlight reflectors, telegraph signals, window venti¬ 
lators, and a long list of other railway specialties. A glance through its 
various departments furnishes a striking illustration of the value of sys¬ 
tematic organization, superior mechanical talent, the very best ma¬ 
chinery, and intelligent industry in the conduct of a great manufactur¬ 
ing enterprise. 

The well known firm of Post & Co., railway supply manufacturers 
and dealers, located at Cincinnati, and enjoying a trade which extends 
throughout the country, especially in the West and Southwest, furnishes 
a two-burner lamp near one end of the car, and a bracket lamp in 
the kitchen. They manufacture lamps for railway cars, offices, stations, 
switches and trains; lamp goods, locomotive headlights, car trim¬ 
mings, electric light lamps, telegraph and telephone instruments, and 
deal in railway and telegraph and telephone supplies of every descrip¬ 
tion. The officers of the company, which was incorporated in 1869, are 
as follows: President, Joseph Kinsey; vice-president and general mana¬ 
ger, E. V. Cherry; secretary, Oliver Kinsey, Jr.; assistant superintendent 
of works, Charles Anderson. 

The company’s manufactory is one of the most extensive in the 
country, and the line of goods manufactured includes a vast number of 
articles used by railways, numbering, besides those above enumerated, all 
brass, bronze, and silver and nickel-plated goods belonging to car doors 
and windows and general interior furnishings. 

FINE WOODS AND VENEERS. 

Nothing in connection with the interior finish of cars, public build¬ 
ings or residences exerts so important a part as do the fine woods. There 
is something honest and substantial in panels or casings or ceilings com¬ 
posed of beautiful sections of walnut, cherry, maple, ash, rosewood, ma¬ 
hogany, amaranth and others of the choice woods which the forests of the 
world produce, and which are rapidly being wasted away and are growing 
more and more expensive. The E. D. Albro Company, of Cincinnati, makes 
a specialty of securing from the splendid forests of the South and from 
foreign lands a vast variety of fine woods, and working them into various 
forms, from heavy paneling to thin veneer, for interior finish and orna¬ 
mentation. The woods which this company has contributed for this car, 
and which constitute a most important feature of its attractiveness, 
include the following varieties: mahogany, from Mexico and San Do¬ 
mingo; amaranth, from Brazil; palo gateado, from Peru; cedar, from 
Mexico; tulip, from Ceylon; olive, from the Holy Land; rosewood, from 


4 2 


THE MODERN RAILWAY CAR. 


Brazil; amboyne and thuya, from the West Indies; ebony, from Mada¬ 
gascar; walnut, from Persia; cedar, from Florida; poplar, oak, ash, 
maple, cherry, and black walnut, from the northern states. 

The firm above referred to deals directly with exporters, sending one 
or more of its members to Europe, Asia, South America and Mexico 
annually to make purchases. Its establishment at Cincinnati is certainly 
the largest of the kind in this country, and probably is not excelled in 
the world. Its trade extends into Mexico, Norway, England, Germany, 
Belgium and France. 

Every clime now pays tribute to the luxury and good taste of the 
public in the use of rare and costly woods for beautifying homes and 
their furnishings, and the general adaptation of native and foreign woods 
for this purpose here in America indicates a sure advance to the position 
which many of the older civilized nations of the earth attained in the 
long ago in this direction. 

One pleasant feature of this advanced step is the substitution of a 
natural wood finish in interior work for poor graining and worse paint¬ 
ing. The American people are awakening to those truths in art which 
nature teaches, and which the art workers of by-gone centuries have 
exemplified in the descriptions and in the relics handed down to us, from 
the building of Solomon’s Temple, from the Arabs and from the Moors 
in Spain, the ancient carvings of Tuscany and mercantile Venice, and 
later still the furniture of the French Louis and the Anglo-Saxon wood 
finish of the times of Elizabeth and Queen Anne. 

The development of the artistic use of finely grained woods for inte¬ 
rior decoration in this country is confined to this generation. Our fathers 
used it to a limited extent only. The builders of passenger cars were the 
first to use wood entirely and in its natural state for interior finish. 

The steamboat was an educator in one direction; the railway car has 
been in another. The garish interior of the steamboat, gorgeous with 
paint, gilding and plate glass, has its influence upon the traveler, as we 
have seen by its less ornate reflection in numerous western homes. But 
it was left to the railway car to popularize the purity of finish which is 
derived from natural surfaces. The railways have kept pace with the 
people in their demands for the luxuries and conveniences of our modern 
life, and from the plain cars used by our plain ancestors we have advanced 
to the beautiful interiors of native and foreign rare woods, of varied 
colors, shades and markings, brought to the highest state of finish by the 
deft hand of the modern car builder. 

Strength, derived from the heat and luxuriant growth of the tropics, 
is indicated by strong color and firm tracery, while specimens from the 


THE MODERN RAIL WA V CAR. 


43 

“lands of snow” seem to reflect with their lighter tints and fainter 
tracery the cool atmosphere in which they grow. 

THE PAINTING AND COLORING. 

An unpainted car would be a very unattractive object, no matter how 
fine the interior or exterior workmanship and finish. A car painted in bad 
taste or with cheap colors, easily rubbing off and losing their hues, would 
destroy the beauty of the workmanship and fittings. The painting of 
railway cars is almost one of the fine arts, so much skill is necessary in 
the selection of the very best materials, which will stand the severe ex¬ 
posure through all kinds of weather to which cars are subjected, and in 
the tasteful and harmonious blending of colors and shades. 

The paint and colors used on this car, and which cannot but receive 
universal admiration, are from the widely known house of Sherwin, 
Williams & Co., of Cleveland and Chicago, whose business has been kept, 
during the past ten years, fully apace with the demand, not only as to the 
quantity of product, but the constantly changing and advancing ideas with 
reference to the painting and ornamentation of railway cars. Only an en¬ 
ergetic and progressive policy can, in these times, maintain supremacy in 
any line of business, and especially in the supplying of paints and colors 
for first-class passenger equipment. That the firm herein named has 
succeeded in holding such a position through these exacting years, is 
abundant evidence of the worth of its product. As a natural result, it 
has been found necessary to make large additions to its works from year 
to year; the most important, probably, in its history, having been made 
during 1882. 

In the manufacture of paints and colors to be used in railway cars, 
there are many things to be considered which do not enter into the sup¬ 
plying of any other branch of this very important business. Chief among 
these is the matter of climate, the requirements and effects of which are 
as widely different in different localities, as are the tastes of those who. 
control the purchase and use of these goods. What will best answer the 
purpose in the shaded East, is wholly unfit for use in the great plains of 
the far West; and there are natural conditions to be considered in the 
regions of alkali, scorching sands and almost perpetual wind, that do not 
exist where the earth is covered with verdure and the climate is more 
equable. Then, too, many cars are employed in “runs” of such great 
length as to include almost all these extremes, rendering necessary the 
most careful and scientific combinations of qualities, colors and shades. 
Add to all these difficulties the fact that almost every railway has a 


44 


THE MODERN RAIL WA Y CAR . 


“ standard ” of its own, which differs materially from that of almost 
every other road, and it is easy to form some idea of the manifold and 
exacting requirements of the railway branch of the trade in paints and 
colors. 

The quiet, attractive color and beautiful finish shown in this car are 
pointed to with more than common pride. It has been especially named 
the “Talbott Blue,” and under this name has been added to the manu¬ 
facturers’ list of car colors, and offered to the railway public. 

THE VARNISHES. 

The Murphy Varnishes, with which the Railway Age Car is finished, 
have long been used by the Pullman Company at their various shops. 
They are from the factories of Murphy & Co., an incorporated company, 
of which Franklin Murphy is president, James G. Barnet and H. A. Sher- 
win, vice-presidents, W. H. Murphy, treasurer, and C. D. Ettinger, sec¬ 
retary. 

This concern is undoubtedly, whether considered by the quality of its 
products or the extent of its operations, the first house in its line in this 
country, and has a history which is full of sympathy with the spirit of 
the present age, in which the rapid development of great enterprises is 
made possible. 

The business was started less than twenty years ago, in a very modest 
way, at Newark, N. J., which place is still the general headquarters, and 
where their plant, in its completeness and capacity for the production of 
fine goods, is probably without an equal. The works comprise nine 
semi-detached buildings, each devoted to a special department of the 
business, and they are supplied with every appliance which can aid in the 
more certain production of uniform goods. In addition to the work at 
Newark, the company have also an extensive plant at Cleveland, an office 
at 231 Broadway, New York, for the convenience of their customers, and a 
store at 202 South Fourth street, St. Louis. 

In these days more than in any other “knowledge is power,” power to 
grasp, power to utilize, power to accomplish, and now, when the friction 
of competition rubs more closely than ever, it is only those who have 
full knowledge of their resources who . can hope to come to the front. 
Undoubtedly the foundation of the success of this company lies in the 
complete knowledge of its details, possessed by its managers. They are 
practical varnish makers as well as practical business men, and as close a 
supervision is kept by them over the smallest detail of factory work as 
over business transactions of the largest importance. Another reason 


THE MODERN RAIL IV.A V CAR. 


45 


doubtless for their success lies in their faith that “the best will win.” 
When they began twenty years ago anything and everything was sold as 
varnish. The quality was always uncertain, but usually poor. They 
undertook to make goods of a standard high quality, and to make the 
name of each one of their different grades mean something as represent¬ 
ing quality. The best only was what they strove for, and the policy then 
adopted has never wavered, until they have seen what was then perhaps 
but a feeble hope realized in the fruition of a large and prosperous 
business. 

Three ingredients go to the making of varnish. Of these copal gum 
is the chief, and its handmaidens are linseed oil and turpentine. It is in 
the proper mingling of these three ingredients that lies the magic of var¬ 
nish making. Anybody can make varnish somehow, as anybody can 
make a vehicle of some sort; but the child’s rough cart is not more 
unlike the finely finished and beautifully designed phaeton than the var¬ 
nish which used to be made in some helter-skelter fashion differs from the 
lustrous results of modern skill and science. 

It requires large capital to select and store vast quantities of each of 
the ingredients. It requires elaborate apparatus to melt the gum with 
the utmost care and to mingle with it at exactly the right moment exactly 
the right proportions of oil and spirits, and it requires a special expert, a 
trained and experienced painter, to test the ripening and the settling of 
the commingled fluids, and to decide as to the fineness and purity of the 
resulting varnish. 


GLASS AND MIRRORS. 

One of the most important elements in the construction of a first-class 
passenger car, is the glass through which light is admitted, and, in con¬ 
nection with it — in the case of private, sleeping and dining cars — the 
mirrors, which contribute so largely to the general effect. 

The earlier cars had comparatively few windows, and what they did 
have were both short and narrow, our fathers and mothers being obliged 
to assume most awkward and uncomfortable positions in order to obtain 
even an unsatisfactory view of the country through which they passed. 
The glass used was of a most inferior quality, thin, far from being clear, 
and cut into contracted little panes, like those used in the earlier resi¬ 
dences. It is not long since some prominent railways added to the other 
discomforts and annoying defects of these unsightly little windows, by 
inserting in their center a still smaller window, presumably for the ad¬ 
mission of air, the benefits of which, if there ever were any, were much 


4 6 


THE MODERN RAIL IVA Y CAR. 


more than offset by their unsightliness, the dust which they admitted 
and the colds directly chargeable to their unwise use. 

For the wonderful transformation which has been wrought in this 
feature of car building, the traveling public are very largely indebted 
to the old New York glass importing house of Theodore W. Morris & 
Co., which has, throughout its existence of forty-five years, made the 
wants and requirements of the railways in this matter a careful study, 
co-operating with car builders in every advance step, and itself suggest- 
ing, from time to time, important improvements which are now enjoyed 
by all who travel. 

This house is composed of Theodore W. Morris and Augustus C. 
Downing, Jr., and has had a continuous and honored existence since 
x ^ 37 » when the firm of Schanck & Downing was founded by Daniel S. 
Schanck (father-in-law of Mr. Morris) and Augustus C. Downing (father 
of Augustus C. Downing, Jr.). With an experience so wide and extend¬ 
ing over so long a period, it is not surprising that it has acquired the 
envied position at the head of the list of importers of fine glass, in this 
country. 

The entire complement of glass entering into the construction and 
furnishing of the Railway Age Car, including windows, doors, decks 
and mirrors, was furnished by this house, and is a more forcible evi¬ 
dence of its good taste and incomparable facilities, than would be any 
praise possible to print in these pages. It is of the finest and most 
expensive character, costing not less than one thousand dollars to import. 
It is the first quality of polished plate, reduced to a special thickness of 
three-sixteenths of an inch, and was imported for this car from the works 
of Pilkington Brothers, St. Helens, Lancashire, England. The delicate 
and expensive etching was done by Theodore W. Morris & Co., from 
designs furnished by Pullman’s Palace Car Company, and the silver¬ 
ing of the mirrors, which are the finest ever placed in any car, was 
also done by the first named company, whose railway patrons include 
such corporations as the Pennsylvania R. R. Co. and the Pennsylvania 
Company, Pullman’s Palace Car Company, the New York Central & Hud¬ 
son River, Delaware, Lackawanna & Western, Central of New Jersey, 
Boston & Albany, Manhattan Elevated, and New York, New Haven & 
Hartford railways. 

Taking the car window of thirty or forty years ago, and comparing it 
with those of the Railway Age Car or with the very large pattern 
recently designed by the Pullman Company, and adopted for the day 
coaches of the New York, Chicago & St. Louis road, we have a contrast 
at once most striking and gratifying. 


THE MODERN RAIL WA Y CAR. 


47 


THE DRAPERY, CARPETS AND UPHOLSTERING. 

After the carpenters and painters and paper hangers have finished a 
house, it is still bare and cheerless until the carpets and upholstering are 
added. Even then cheap or unsuitable carpets and other textiles mar the 
whole effect. The selection of appropriate colors and qualities is one of 
the most difficult tasks connected with the furnishing of a house or car, 
and it is a vast relief to the purchaser to be able to command the experi¬ 
ence and taste of an establishment which makes a business of constantly- 
deciding these questions. The extensive house of Judson & Co., corner 
of State and Washington streets, Chicago, now stands in the front rank 
in this line. Mr. Judson is himself the possessor of exquisite taste and 
judgment in the selection of goods, and in so arranging and applying 
them as to produce the most pleasing effect, and his assistants are 
scarcely less thorough than himself. It is well understood by people of 
culture and means that in purchasing carpets, curtains and upholstery 
goods, it is all important to deal with those who possess these accom¬ 
plishments. That the Messrs. Judson & Co. do possess them is evidenced 
in a most striking manner by the rich Axminster carpets, the heavy 
tapestry window curtains, drapery and embroidered velure upholstering 
which contribute so largely to the attractiveness of the Parlor, Private 
Room and Sections of the Railway Age Car. 

In few other respects has there been such marked improvement in 
taste, in combining colors, varieties of material, trimmings, and in treat¬ 
ing them all so as to produce the most pleasing effect, as in the draping 
of homes, whether on stone foundations or on wheels. So many consid¬ 
erations are necessary to be kept, in view, that only those who make the 
art—for it is an art, indeed—a constant study are able to keep abreast 
of the progress being made in this most interesting branch in household 
decoration. 

Some idea of the important part in the general effect which the 
drapery of this car performs, may be obtained from a critical examination 
of the Parlor and the approaches to it, where the force of this assertion is 
most strikingly illustrated. It is something in which Mr. Judson has 
good cause for pride. 

Among the changes which time works in matters pertaining to the 
furnishing and ornamenting of homes, and which are generally the result 
of a constantly advancing taste, probably none have been more marked 
during the past five years than that which has discarded the cumbersome, 
creaking, generally out of order doors which heretofore connected prin¬ 
cipal apartments with each other, and all of them with halls and passage- 


4 8 


THE MODERN RAIL WA Y CAR. 


ways, and substituted graceful drapery in their stead. It may be termed 
a revelation. Certainly it has opened a new field for the exercise of taste, 
and it is fortunate that there are Judsons with the ability to creditably 
supply the demand thus created. 

THE HEATER. 

To heat a railway car in motion thoroughly, evenly and constantly, 
and yet not excessively, is a difficult thing. The common stove can 
easily be made, as passengers in the ordinary day coach will painfully 
testify, a medium of extreme discomfort and serious danger to health. 
The brakeman can easily crowd it full of wood or coal and increase the 
temperature of the car to a fearful extreme, and with still greater ease 
may neglect the stove altogether until the other extreme of cold has been 
reached. The common stove, which needs constant attention and then 
will only heat one corner of the car, will not answer now for railway use. 

The heater invented by Mr. J. Q. C. Searle, of Cincinnati, and manu¬ 
factured by the Union Brass Company, of Chicago, is a new invention as 
compared with the Baker & Smith heater, which so long and so sternly 
held the position of a monopoly, and is in every respect equal to it, while 
in many respects its superior. That we are not claiming too much, we 
feel sure an examination of the heater furnished this car by the Union 
Brass Company will abundantly prove. It is certainly the most complete, 
as well as most beautifully finished car heater thus far produced in this 
country. 

THE KITCHEN RANGE. 

The idea of cooking upon a railway train, at first glance seems absurd, 
and its practical application is of very modern origin. Possibly the 
suggestion was obtained from observing some old lady warming her cup 
of tea over a spirit lamp, or some anxious mother preparing pabulum for 
her infant by means of a portable fire; but that a regular hotel meal could 
be cooked in the Small space of a little corner of a railway car, traveling 
at full speed, to say nothing of obtaining the necessary room for storing 
the fuel and food and allowing the movements of attendants, was proba¬ 
bly not even dreamed of for more than a generation after the railway was 
inaugurated. So travelers carried their cold lunches with them, or took 
their chances of dyspepsia by hurriedly swallowing what was set before 
them at dining-rooms and lunch counters, and not even the wealthy, 
who would have been glad to pay for it, thought it possible to obtain a 
warm meal in their car as they pursued long journeys through western 


THE MODERN RAIL WA V CAR. 


49 


wilds, poorly supplied with table accomodations even of the most primi¬ 
tive sort. But a few years ago the happy inspiration occured to some 
one in Pullman’s Palace Car Company that a dining car might be con¬ 
structed in which all the requirements of a first-class hotel table might 
be provided. Evidently if the road-bed were smooth, as it now is on 
every well regulated modern railway, it would be easy enough to arrange 
tables in a car, from which passengers could eat. The great trouble was 



The Range. 


to obtain means of cooking satisfactorily in so small a compass. Mean¬ 
time great progress had been made in the construction of stoves. The 
little old fashioned cooking stove upon which meals were formerly pre¬ 
pared with much inconvenience had given place to the range, a large 
iron box with abundance of heating surface and conveniences for holding 
and warming dishes,—and a range made expressly for this purpose was 






























THE MODERN RAILWAY CAR. 


5 ° 

tried in’the first dining car ever built, which was placed on the Chicago 
& Alton road between Chicago and St. Louis. The idea took immensely 
with the traveling public, but practical difficulties, developed, and the 
Pullman company became almost discouraged over the attempt to have 
cooking carried on properly in so contracted a space as was necessary. 
Mr. N. M. Simonds, of Chicago, an old manufacturer of stoves, believed 
that these difficulties could be surmounted, and he kept steadily at work 
making one improvement after another, until now the “ Simonds’ Patent 
Wrought Iron Portable Range” is in use in a great number of railway 
dining and hotel cars and private coaches, and is giving most satisfactory 
results; indeed, it is almost impossible to conceive of any farther im¬ 
provement, so quickly and perfectly does this range cook, while occupy¬ 
ing small space and requiring a very moderate amount of fuel. The 
entire feasibility of cooking in cars having now been demonstrated, the 
use of dining cars has become almost a necessity to every great line of 
railway, and it is not unlikely that the dining car will, ere long, practi¬ 
cally supersede the eating house on all roads of any considerable length, 
so far, at least, as first-class travel is concerned. Besides this, the suc¬ 
cessful application of the range has made possible the construction of 
private cars in which railway officers and travelers of means can eat 
as well as sleep, carrying their hotel with them and being entirely in¬ 
dependent of localities, or connections, or times of journeying, so far as 
their table is concerned. 

The range which Mr. Simonds has with great enterprise and liberal 
expenditure constructed for the Railway Age Car , is made from entirely 
new plans, and we believe it to be superior, both in beauty and in service¬ 
ableness to anything of the kind ever before manufactured. It is finished 
entirely in heavy nickel-plate and solid black. The beautiful ornamenta¬ 
tion of the exterior was made at considerable expense, expressly for this 
range, and no person who examines it can fail to be delighted, both with 
the attractiveness of its appearance and the remarkable economy of space 
with which it does its perfect work. Those who may journey in this car 
will be more than satisfied that with a Simonds range, meals can be 
served quickly, satisfactorily, and with a sufficient variety of dishes. 
If it is a complete success with the difficult surroundings of a railway 
car, it is needless to say that for hotels, restaurants and residences, it is 
all that could be desired. Various sizes are made, some containing as 
many as sixteen holes, two baking ovens and two fires, an adjustable 
grate for coal or wood, and other conveniences, such as attachments for 
heating water, and steam table for cooking by steam when desired, etc. 
The illustration here given is a faithful representation of the front view 
of the range in this car. 


THE MODERN RAIL WA Y CAR. 


51 


THE KITCHEN UTENSILS. 

Every good housekeeper will appreciate the various utensils to be 
found in the kitchen and in the butler’s pantry of this car, because of 
their completeness both in design and finish, and especially will the 
copper articles be admired. These are from the great works of The 
Adams & Westlake Manufacturing Company, of Chicago, and constitute 
a display which is most creditable to the good taste and superior work¬ 
manship of this well known establishment. 

THE SILVER SERVICE. 

One of the most attractive features of the dining table of a private 
residence should be the silver service. Here is opportunity for the exer¬ 
cise of taste which will be observed and appreciated by every guest before 
whom it is placed. This is equally true of the table of a dining or private 
car. In fact there is, if possible, greater need here, because of the un¬ 
usual surroundings, in themselves not without elements of romance, and 
possessing strong incentives to the exercise of refined taste and the indul¬ 
gence of one’s desire for the comforts and conveniences of modern 
refinement. A peep into the butler’s pantry or the dining room of a 
modern private or dining car which has been provided with an elegant 
service of silver along with its other interior equipment, is a revelation. 
It instantly sets one to comparing mentally the comforts of travel now 
with the discomforts of the early years of our railway history, when our 
elder brothers and sisters thought it a glorious privilege to be given 
“twenty minutes for dinner,” a worse than indifferent “eating house,” 
and complained not at being obliged to trudge a hundred yards or more 
through mud and rain to secure a poorly cooked and worse served meal. 
Now-a-days the traveler may sleep comfortably, dine luxuriously and at 
his pleasure, using all the time he would use at his home, smoke his cigar, 
give his muscles needed relaxation, and otherwise enjoy a journey of a 
thousand miles or more by rail without leaving the train for a moment 
or being subjected to a single inconvenience. 

The elegant silver service of which we started out to speak, was made 
for this car by the Rockford Silver Plate Company of Rockford, Illinois, 
from original designs prepared by its own artists, and is one of the most 
complete and appropriate ever gotten up. It consists of 151 pieces as 
follows: 

One ice pitcher, two tea pots, six casters, one salver, eight creamers, 
five butter dishes, eighteen dinner knives, eighteen forks, six butter 





The Silver Service. 





































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































THE MODERN RAILWAY CAR. 


53 


knives, one sugar sifter, six sugar spoons, four mustard spoons, two 
olive spoons, twenty-four dessert spoons, eighteen tablespoons, thirty 
teaspoons. 

On one side of the larger articles are engraved illustrations of old 
locomotives and cars, representing the early days of railroading, with the 
exception of the salver, which presents a striking engraving of a modern 
train just departing from a beautiful station, and one of the tea pots, on 
which is shown a modern locomotive. On the reverse side of all these 
articles is engraved “The Railway Age” and on the smaller articles the 
monogram of the Railway Age is given, while on the feet of each article is 
engraved a locomotive emerging from a tunnel. The designing of this 
service, as will be seen by a glance at the full-page illustration of a group 
of a few of the more prominent articles given in this volume, reflects great 
credit upon the manufacturers. 

The Rockford Silver Plate Company is a Western institution, full to 
the brim of enterprise and push, conscientious and strictly honorable in 
its methods, progressive, public spirited, and as a natural and proper 
result, eminently prosperous. Its works at Rockford (the queen of west¬ 
ern towns) are very extensive and are equipped with the most approved 
machinery, its employes are thoroughly trained in their work, and its pro¬ 
duct stands by the side of the highest in the trade. The officers of the 
company are H. W. Price, president, Irvin French, vice-president, Geo. 
B. Kelley, secretary and treasurer. Mr. Kelley is, in fact, the manager 
and is largely entitled to the credit of bringing the establishment to its 
present prosperous condition. 

THE FOLDING BED. 

Among the many comfortable inventions of the present day none rank 
higher than the modern folding bed. We say “modern,” because when 
the century was young our grandparents used the “bureau bedstead,” an 
apparatus the chief merit of which was its sterling honesty, for, though 
when done up for the day, and its real purpose was supposed to be hidden 
under the guise of a “ chest of drawers,” the attempted deceit was so pal¬ 
pable and easily discovered as to rob it of all guile. 

It never came into very general use for manifest good and substantial 
reasons, which it is unnecessary to emphasize with particularity here, still 
here was the germ which was destined to fructify and bear fruit in our 
day. All the old objections have been met and overcome, one by one, 
and as the perfect realization of the union of luxury, elegance and utility, 
we can point to the folding bed of the Railway Age Car. 




54 


THE MODERN RAIL WA Y CAR, 



He must be gifted with more than 
natural penetration who should suspect 
that the elegant etagere of choice de¬ 
sign and exquisite workmanship, fash¬ 
ioned of rarest woods, which is 
shown in the cut, is also a couch 
such as Cleopatra, sailing in her 
gilded barge amid the spice-la- 
den airs of orient isles, might 
have envied; but such is the 
solid prosaic fact, and to woo 
sweet slumber, while the 
minutes count the miles, on 
the downy pillows of 
such a bed is truly the 
crowning triuruph of 
travel. 

A. H. Andrews 
& Co. are the manu¬ 
facturers, and its 
perfection and present 
great popularity are the results of 
fifteen years’ practical experience. 

It has many important features which are 
found in no other. These beds are thor¬ 
oughly comfortable, of superior construction and finish, and present 
a most pleasing appearance when closed. They occupy very small 
space, being in depth only twenty-two inches, and yet holding mattress, 
pillows and bedding. They are not disarranged in folding, after being 
made up; nor is the mattress divided into sections, since the woven wire 
springs when folded are off tension, taking no more room than the thick¬ 
ness of the wire, viz., one-half inch. They do not require heavy weights 
for balancing, but are light and portable, placed on large casters, and 
weigh only ioo to 200 pounds, and are very easily moved from one room 
to another. They are fitted with woven wire mattresses of finest quality; 
do not require moving out into the room before opening, and the ventila¬ 
tion, even when closed, is perfect, the back being open when the front is 
closed, a most important advantage. 












THE MODERN RAILWAY CAR. 


55 


THE DOOR AND WINDOW FIXTURES. 

The locks, catches and other fixtures with which the doors of this car 
are equipped, and which combine every element of strength, security and 
beauty that inventive genius and mechanical skill have been able thus 
far to produce, are from the well known manufactories of the Union Brass 
Company, of Chicago, and Post & Co., of Cincinnati. The window fix¬ 
tures are from the first named firm and the Phosphor Bronze Smelting 
Company, of Philadelphia. 

THE ELECTRIC CALL BELLS. 

It is a very great convenience in a railway car, especially at night, to 
be able to summon an attendant instantly to one’s compartment or 
berth. It would hardly be feasible to do this by means of the old fash¬ 
ioned bells and cords, and hence electricity has been ingeniously applied 
to this humble but useful service. The Western Electric Company of 
Chicago have furnished the electric call bells, which, by the slightest touch 
upon either of the half dozen buttons that have been placed at convenient 
points, will summon attendants to any part of the car, and without dis¬ 
turbing the other occupants. This adaptation of electricity to the instan¬ 
taneous ringing of bells in cars, hotels, private houses, business offices, 
etc., has assumed extensive proportions within a very short time, and im¬ 
provements have been made by the Western Electric Company which 
render the plan not only inexpensive, but reliable and in every way satis¬ 
factory. . 

The ‘‘register” in the butler’s pantry, on the face-of which the exact 
location of all “ calls ” is indicated, is in itself an exquisite bit of work¬ 
manship, and will not fail to attract the visitor’s attention. The presi¬ 
dent of the Western Electric Company is Gen. Anson Stager, so. well 
known through his long and prominent connection with the Western 
Union Telegraph Company. 

THE FAITHFUL TIME KEEPER. 

The beautiful clock, which overlooks the parlor of this car from its ele¬ 
vated position above the large mirror, is from the extensive works of the 
Ansonia Clock Company, of Ansonia, Connecticut. Its machinery is so 
finely and carefully made that it ticks out the exact time with unerring 
fidelity, night and day, notwithstanding the jars and shocks to which a 
car is necessarily subjected. No time-keeper, occupying a favored 
place on the most elegant mantel in the land renders more faithful or 


5 6 


THE MODERN RAIL WA Y CAR. 


more appreciable service. Two of the specialties produced by this com¬ 
pany are depot and locomotive clocks, of which railway companies are 
large purchasers. 


THE WATER COOLER. 

The very handsome piece of furniture which occupies a niche in the 
passage-way between the sections and the butler’s pantry, from which a 
glass of cold water can always be obtained, is from the great establish¬ 
ment of the Adams & Westlake Company. It was especially designed to 
fit this niche, and will, as it deserves, receive its full meed of admiration. 
The silver-plating is especially noticeable, being of the heaviest charac¬ 
ter and finest polish, intended to last as long as the car shall last. The 
base on which the cooler stands consists of a finely cut piece of the most 
beautiful Tennessee variegated marble, from the quarries of Beach & Co., 
of Knoxville, that state. A wide silver plated band, passing around the 
cooler and fastened to the partition against which it stands, keeps it se¬ 
curely in position. It is not many years since passengers in day cars 
were served water much as if they had been animals, the “ train boy ” 
coming around at long intervals and doling it out to them in a tin cup 
from a vessel of like material, the operation generally being attended by 
marked disregard either for civility or cleanliness. From this to the 
cooler which now has its place in every car, the transformation has been 
a most creditable one. 

WINDOW SHADES, ROLLERS, ETC. 

The window shades, hung upon the celebrated Hartshorn self-acting 
roller, are furnished by Messrs. E. Jennings & Co., Chicago. This roller, 
with its self-acting spring and easy and quick movement, is a wonderful 
improvement upon the troublesome old-fashioned cords and pulleys, which 
were always getting out of order and letting the curtain drop down with¬ 
out warning. Messrs. Jennings & Co. furnish window curtains and fixtures 
of every desirable kind for use in cars and residences, and make careful 
study of the best means of doing so in the most satisfactory manner 
possible. Their taste and skill are visible in almost every Pullman car 
that has been built in the last five years, as well as in a very large num¬ 
ber of fine cars built by and for other corporations. The shades used in 
this car are similar in material and design to those ordinarily used in the 
later Pullman sleeping cars, and are believed to come as near to the 
peculiar requirements of this particular use as any that it is possible at 
present to provide. 


THE MODERN RAILWAY CAR. 


57 


VENTILATORS AND DUST-GUARDS. 

The problem of ventilating railway cars and at the same time prevent¬ 
ing the entrance of dust and cinders, has taxed the ingenuity of number¬ 
less inventors, and the list of devices that have been tried and finally 
abandoned is long and discouraging. Pure air is an absolute necessity, 
and yet its mixture with dust and cinders is a source of vast discomfort 
to railway travelers. The Globe Ventilator Company, of Troy, N. Y., 
whose devices are applied to this car, seem to have come as near as is 
now possible to solving the important problem of letting in the air at 
proper times and in proper quantities, and excluding its objectionable 
accompaniments. In few directions has the progress of the last few 
years in car building and equipping been as great as in this very import¬ 
ant matter of ventilation. 

BELL CORD AND FIXTURES. 

The bell cord used in this car is made of the finest silk, by the Silver 
Lake Company of Boston, a corporation established in 1869, and at the 
present time employing in the manufacture of its varied products almost 
three hundred thousand dollars. Its solid braided cords are probably 
without an equal, and these and its signal lines, bell cord couplings, 
packing and other specialties, are used by very nearly all the railways 
in this country. The packing is made from pure cotton and the finest 
talc and has acquired a most enviable reputation. The company’s braid¬ 
ing machines are claimed to be the only ones in existence that will pro¬ 
duce a perfectly hard and smooth cord, and are very ingenious in their 
construction. The readiness of the company to consider and adopt sug¬ 
gestions looking to the improvement of its product, has contributed 
largely to its success. 

RECLINING CHAIRS. 

Next to a bed no article of furniture can afford more comfort than a 
chair capable of being adjusted to various positions to suit the different 
conditions of body and mind. Three very ingenious and comfortable 
kinds of reclining chairs are shown in this car, manufactured respectively 
by the Union Brass Company of Chicago, Dr. N. N. Horton, of Kansas 
City, Mo., and Marks & Co., of New York. Large numbers of reclining 
chairs are now used in railway cars, and they form a happy medium 
between the ordinary seat in the day car and the very comfortable 
berth in the sleeping car. They are especially adapted to short night 


58 


THE MODERN RAIL WA Y CAR. 


journeys, and, indeed, to a long night journey in case the traveler cannot 
afford the luxury of the Pullman sleeper. Each of these chairs has its 
peculiar advantages, and each will be found very comfortable and lux¬ 
urious. They are a modern invention, Dr. Horton being their pioneer, 
and the Chicago & Alton railway the first, we believe, to systematically 
use them. In a very few years the reclining chair has sprung into popu¬ 
larity with the traveling public, as have few other inventions intended 
for railway use. 


THE SPEED RECORDER. 

Every traveler on a railway train is naturally curious to know how 
fast he is traveling ; but this information is much more than a matter of 
mere curiosity to the train men and their officers. The speed of passen¬ 
ger trains can be very easily regulated by reason of the fact that they 
run upon a regular schedule, have their appointed stops of limited dura¬ 
tion, and are kept closely in hand, in order to make the time required by 
the card ; but with freight trains this is quite different. They are neces¬ 
sarily obliged often to stop longer at stations in order to do switching, 
or to wait for other trains. They vary greatly in weight on different 
days and at different parts of their route, and many other circumstances 
tend to make it impossible to run upon an exact schedule for arriving at 
and leaving stations, as passenger trains do. Most roads have rules 
limiting the time of freight trains, some to twelve and others to fifteen 
miles per hour, a few allowing even faster time ; but the great difficulty 
has been to compel engineers and conductors to obey the rules, and not 
indulge in fast running. The temptation to excessive speed is often very 
great. As the freight train is liable to be delayed at stations in switch¬ 
ing, the train men are sometimes inclined to “ steal time ” by stopping 
longer at agreeable points than is necessary, and then trying to make up 
this lost time by fast running. To these violations of rules is to be 
attributed a very large share of the frequent accidents to freight trains. 
After loafing at the station or crawling slowly up a heavy grade, the 
trains have been sent thundering down a steep incline at a terrific rate 
of speed, resulting often in wreck, and always in great damage to road¬ 
way and rolling stock. 

How to detect and stop this abuse, was, until within a few years, an 
unsolved problem. Trainmen naturally dislike to report each other, and 
the “ old man ” could not always be hiding under bridges waiting for 
trains to come along so that he might catch the “boys” in the act of 
fast running. Inventive genius, however, was at work endeavoring to 


THE MODERN RAILWAY CAR . 


59 


produce a device whereby the speed made by the axle could be communi¬ 
cated to an appliance which would accurately and permanently record 
it for investigation, and we now have two or three successful speed re¬ 
corders which are in use on the freight trains of many of our leading 
roads, giving a history of each trip with unfailing accuracy. 

The oldest and best known of these admirable appliances, is the 
Wythe “ Self-Registering Speed Recorder,” which is the invention of a 
Methodist minister, Rev. W. W. Wythe, D.D., now of Ocean Grove, N. J. 
One of these wonderful instruments occupies a place in the observation 
room of the Railway Age Car , and will prove to. be a most instructive 
and interesting appliance. 

THE SEAT AND BERTH SPRINGS. 

A journey in this car, which shall occupy a day and a night or more, 
will not fail to elicit praise of the springs which render the seats, sofas 
* and berths so truly luxurious as they will be found to be. These were made 
by Cobb & Son, of Chicago, and E. L. Bushnell, of Poughkeepsie, N. Y. 
The material used is the very best steel, and the workmanship which 
produced them does not fall behind the material in merit. The Cobb 
spring is spiral in form, while the Bushnell is elliptic, both styles, how¬ 
ever, possessing advantages that have given both a most enviable reputa¬ 
tion. 

BRASS AND SILVER PLATED TRIMMINGS. 

Of the great establishment whose familiar stamp appears on very 
nearly all the smaller fittings which are to be seen in every nook and 
corner of this car—The Union Brass Manufacturing Company, of Chi¬ 
cago— little can be written which can possibly add a feather’s weight to 
a proud reputation already as wide as the country itself. In fact, the 
fame of its product is not confined to our own shores, but has gone 
abroad and is familiar to railway circles in many countries where our 
language is little known, and where the prejudice against American com¬ 
petition is only overcome by extraordinary merit. 

These articles, which include door locks, knobs, sash lifts and springs, 
cupboard catches, night latches, bolts, hinges, butts, berth trimmings, 
tumbler holders, window fastenings, bell cord fixtures, screws, coat and 
hat hooks, arm-rest brackets, and scores of other fittings, each of which 
may seem to possess little importance, yet all of which are absolutely 
necessary to the comfortable and complete equipment of a first-class car, 
involve in their designing, the highest talent, and in their manufacture, 
skilled labor and a very large amount of capital. 


6o 


THE MODERN RAIL WA Y CAR. 


Could the reader examine specimens of these articles as made and 
used at different periods through the past thirty years of our railway 
history, tracing the progress through these years as he would study the 
advance of a conquering army or the growth of a cherished tree that is to 
afford him shade in his declining years, and compare the old, as repre¬ 
sented at the outset of his examination, with the new, as seen in the 
Union Brass Company's store-rooms of to-day, he would marvel that such 
wonderful improvement could have been accomplished. To this com¬ 
pany belongs very great credit for the progress and improvement in per¬ 
fecting interior car trimmings which are mentioned above, and its contri¬ 
bution to the Railway Age Car is pointed to with unfeigned pride and 
satisfaction. 


THE MARBLE. 

The beautiful marble to be seen in the toilet rooms and under the 
water cooler, is from the extensive quarries of Beach & Company, of 
Knoxville, Tenn., and was shaped to its present forms by Sherman & 
Flavin, of Chicago, who have long done much of this kind of work for 
railway cars. It is a very superior specimen of this world-famous marble, 
is handsomely variegated and takes a polish seldom equaled. Then, too, 
no ordinary substance will stain its surface, a quality which especially 
commends it for purposes of this nature. 

Why people persist in the use of white marble for anything but tomb¬ 
stones, when there is in the mountains and hills of Tennessee, an exhaust¬ 
less quantity of the variegated article of which we have spoken, is matter 
of surprise. Certainly they cannot have seen such beautiful specimens of 
this marble as those by which it is represented in the Railway Age Car. 

THE REFRIGERATOR. 

In the butler’s pantry will be found the refrigerator, in which are kept 
such articles as are naturally required to be kept cool. It is built to oc¬ 
cupy a space which, although not intended for it, could not be utilized to 
so great advantage for any other purpose. It is a Lorillard patent and 
manufacture, and is made of solid mahogany, with double French plate 
glass doors, and is divided into three separate compartments, the upper 
of which receives the ice, the others being sub-divided, for convenience, 
by several movable slats. On either side are air chambers through 
which the cool air passes around the entire refrigerator, keeping the tem¬ 
perature in perfect condition so long as there is ice above. It is not only 
a beautiful piece of workmanship, but its remarkably efficient service 


THE MODERN RAIL WA Y CAR. 


6l 


proves the principles upon which it is constructed to be in every way 
deserving of approval. 

The Lorillard Refrigerator Company is a New York establishment, 
and is composed of gentlemen of unquestionable business integrity,whose 
every promise may be relied upon with implicit faith. The refrigerators 
made by them are equally as valuable for residences as for cars. 

THE BUILDERS OF THE RAILWAY AGE CAR. 

It would be an inexcusable omission to close this little volume without 
making some special and extended reference to the great car works of the 
Pullman Company, by which this beautiful car was designed and built. 
No other institution in America is so closely identified with the progress 
of the railway interests of the country, in the important matter of render¬ 
ing traveling not only comfortable but luxurious, as is this company. 

Its President and governing spirit, Mr. George M. Pullman, having 
commenced his career with a single car, transformed from a day car into 
a sleeper, less than thirty years ago, and having experimented constantly 
ever since, studying closely the needs of the traveling public in the direc¬ 
tion in which his efforts have been employed, is better able than any 
other man to determine what is needed, and to provide for the public 
demands. This he has done in a remarkable degree, always leading in¬ 
stead of following, anticipating these needs instead of waiting to comply 
with imperative demands (as is too often the case) notwithstanding the 
largely increased expenditure required of him because of this liberal 
policy. It would be exceedingly interesting to follow from the humble 
beginning referred to, the wonderful progress that has been made by Mr. 
Pullman in the construction and equipment of sleeping cars up to the 
present time. All over the land, and even in Europe, the name of Pull¬ 
man, when connected with travel, is an indication that the very best 
accommodations may be expected. So universal is this that for many 
years past the railway companies which use his cars have advertised the 
fact in all their printed matter as a special inducement to the traveling 
public to patronize their trains. Very few railway appliances indeed 
have ever acquired this independent position; the only others which we 
can at present call to mind being the “Miller coupler and platform” and 
the “ Westinghouse brake.” It is a distinction which is very seldom 
reached, and when reached means greatly more than is at first manifest. 

For many years the product of the Pullman Car Works has deservedly 
occupied the head rank, not alone as regards sleeping cars, but day cars 
as well. The extensive works at Detroit, although among the greatest in 


6 2 


THE MODERN RAIL WA V CAR. 


the country, have been more than doubled by the erection of those at 
Pullman, ten miles south of Chicago. Considered together, these consti¬ 
tute unquestionably the most extensive establishment of the kind in the 
world. 

The works at Pullman are particularly complete, and may be con¬ 
sidered a greater monument to their projector than would be any marble 
shaft possible to be erected. Not only are these works the most extensive 
and complete in every respect, in the land, but they are surrounded by 
those elements which go to make up the comforts, conveniences and 
refining influences that ought to be considered by all who employ large 
numbers of artisans. In this respect, an example has been set by Mr. 
Pullman which is eminently worthy of imitation. 

With such surroundings the average mechanic becomes a superior 
workman because of the enlarged views and new ambitions which they 
instill, and just in proportion to the other beneficial results that are ex¬ 
perienced are his services more valuable to his employer. 

In the important matter of designing the interior arrangement and 
ornamentation of the finer class of cars, the Pullman Company has been 
the recognized leader for years, as well as in the more practical matter of 
the comforts heretofore referred to. In all these the Railway Age Car 
illustrates more forcibly than could words, the high standard which this 
company has reached in the advancement of car building. We feel sure 
that an examination of the various departments of this car, and above all 
a journey in it. would prove the correctness of this statement beyond 
doubt or question. That it reflects as great credit upon the Pullman 
Company, by whom it was built, as it does upon the various manufactu¬ 
rers of appliances entering into its construction and furnishing, or upon 
the paper for which it was built, we feel sure no one will question. 



A Weekly Journal of Transportation, 

PUBLISHED BY 


'be R ailway j^>ge j)ublisbii?g 


onpny, 


AT CHICAGO, U. S. A. 


E. H. TALBOTT, President and Manager. 

H. R. HOBART, Vice-President. 

JOHN MORRIS, Secretary. 


Editors : 


E. H. TALBOTT. 


H. R. HOBART. 

















































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